Gentiles in pre-Christian times could enjoy the full benefits of God’s people

1. Provision in the Law

Exodus 12:48-49 An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you.

Leviticus 17:8 . . . Any Israelite or any alien living among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice . . .

Leviticus 19:34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 24:22 You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God. (Numbers 15:29 is similar)

Numbers 15:14-16 For the generations to come, whenever an alien or anyone else living among you presents an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, he must do exactly as you do. The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD: The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.

Numbers 15:26 The whole Israelite community and the aliens living among them will be forgiven, because all the people were involved in the unintentional wrong.

Numbers 35:15 These six towns will be a place of refuge for Israelites, aliens and any other people living among them, so that anyone who has killed another accidentally can flee there.

Deuteronomy 10:17-18 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, . . . He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.

Deuteronomy 14:28-29 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes . . . so that the Levites . . . and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows . . . may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (Deuteronomy 26:11-13 is similar)

Deuteronomy 16:10-11 Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering . . . And rejoice before the LORD your God . . . – you, your sons and daughters,  . . . the Levites . . . and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.

Deuteronomy 29:10-13 All of you are standing today in the presence of the LORD your God – your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, together with your children and your wives, and the aliens living in your camps . . . You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God, a covenant the LORD is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

2. The Outworking of This

Rahab was originally so far beyond the Old Covenant that she was not only a harlot, but a Canaanite; belonging to the very race and generation that God commanded to be totally wiped out. She ended up so divinely accepted that she became an ancestresses of Jesus. Ruth was a Moabite, and Deuteronomy 23:3 says that no Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord even down to the tenth generation. She, too. became an ancestresses of Jesus.

Joshua 8:33-35 All Israel, aliens and citizens alike, . . . were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD . . . There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the aliens who lived among them.

Ezra 6:20-21 . . . The Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, . . . So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the LORD, the God of Israel.

Jeremiah 39:16-18 ‘Go and tell Ebed-melech the Cushite, “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am about to fulfill my words against this city through disaster, not prosperity. At that time they will be fulfilled before your eyes. But I will rescue you on that day, declares the LORD; you will not be handed over to those you fear. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the LORD.” ’

Isaiah 56:3-7 Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the LORD say, ‘The LORD will surely exclude me from his people’ . . . And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant –these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.

(Emphasis mine.)